If you want to do mma then you need to spar A LOT. And don't bother using nay spinning kicks, jumps kicks, hook kicks, etc. you will get dropped every time in an mma fight. Work on front kicks, side kicks, and round kicks and as far as muay thai, well, it's radically different so it will throw off your TKD training. Mainly you just need to learn the low round kick, how to block the low round kick, and deal with the thai clinch and knees. But don't go too deep into Muay thai if you want to stay serious in TKD. the stance in muay thai is way different, the footwork is different, punching is different, it's all really different so just pull a few things from it and maintain your TKD base. Learn some basic boxing too. With BJJ, best thing to focus on learning is sweeps, submission defense, and ground n pound (the chuck Liddell approach to BJJ) since you're probably gonna want to go into mma as a striker. Find some wrestlers to teach you how to pummel in a clinch and stop takedowns. Your TKD stance will make mma really difficult because the traditional, highly bladed stance of TKD will make your single leg takedowns and leg kicks really effective on you. If you try to train for high belts and mma at the same time you will have trouble on both.

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Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,

Take it from the old guy, cross training in different arts is great,but, splitting your focus isn't always the best thing to do. There is an old saying, "Jack of all trades... Master of none." I guess it comes down to if you want to do the MMA or if your goal is being the best in your chosen art. Sounds like you are ready to go for it. Whatever you choose Push hard and it will sort itself out.

AS another "old guy"--I am 41--I would add one more thing: wear and tear on the body.

Training in multiple martial arts can be brutal on the body. You probably won't notice this while you're in your teens 20s. If you're lucky, you may not notice in much while you're in your 30s. But after 40, forget it. The wear and tear of decades of training really makes itself felt. You get sore knees, a sore back, sore shoulders. There's a long-term price to pay for trying to do it all.

Agreed with that timeline, fileboy. I'm 42 (training since I was 15), and didn't really have too many problems until I was about 39 or so. It does add up. Mixing the arts is fine, but just try to be careful with the intensity. Don't over do it!

_________________________"In case you ever wondered what it's like to be knocked out, it's like waking up from a nightmare only to discover it wasn't a dream." -Forrest Griffin

Look those kids before me don't know anything, just wet behind the ears! I'd take them over my knee and beat some since into them, except I have can't pick them up because of a back back and my knees don't really bend very well anymore, and I probably couldn't catch them because of my torn Achilles I got from an injured hip that I didn't rehab correctly after hurting it attempting to sweep during a Judo tournament:)

OK, so it sucks to get older and you are going to have you aches and pains...but I think what is really important is your approach to injury at an early age and beyond.

Most of these guys I am guessing came up it the tough it out push through it mindset of our generation in all sports not just MA. The truth is physical toughness is no match for mental ignorance, and most of us would be far better off today if we had known more about injury and bio-mechanics early on and trained more intelligently.

Personally, I would love to see every instructor have to be certified in some sports medicine course, so they could provide proper training and deal with injury much more effectively. (But that is just dream) So all we can do is work locally and teach the younger people what we learned by doing it the wrong way.

As to the OP about mixing the arts, I think it's essential to get out from under your roof and experience other arts. Not to the degree where you never become truly proficient in any one area, but enough so that you don't become bogged down by any one way of doing things. There are few places that teach truly rounded fighters, they almost always have a dominant area even if they work on others.

Plus there is still a good reason to study different approaches to the same end goal. TMA vs. Boxing in terms of striking. Judo/BJJ/Wrestling are all different as they are similar. The list goes on and on.

The flip side of course is you want to settle on less in the long term. You won't become any good with a little bit of a lot, you will become good with a lot of a little bit. IMO

I think all martial arts are mixed, because nothing develops in a vacuum.

Be that as it may, if you want to fight for competition, then you have to ask yourself what sort of competition. If it's a WTF competition, then MMA techniques won't work, because WTF rules are very specific on the points that will be awarded.

I think you should get your black belt first, finish one style, and then mix and match as you see fit.

Agreed with that timeline, fileboy. I'm 42 (training since I was 15), and didn't really have too many problems until I was about 39 or so. It does add up. Mixing the arts is fine, but just try to be careful with the intensity. Don't over do it!

In Poland you have to pass a sports trainer's course in whichever disciplines you are teaching. It includes knwledge of anatomy etc. Otherwise, you can't teach.

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See how well I block your punches with my jaw!!